Human occupation of Rwanda is thought to have begun shortly after the last ice age. By the 11th century,the inhabitants had organized into a number of kingdoms. In the 19th century,Mwami (king) Rwabugiri of the Kingdom of Rwanda conducted a decades-long process of military conquest and administrative consolidation that resulted in the kingdom coming to control most of what is now Rwanda. The colonial powers,Germany and Belgium,allied with the Rwandan court.
Juvénal Habyarimana was a Rwandan politician and military officer who served as the second president of Rwanda,from 1973 until 1994. He was nicknamed Kinani,a Kinyarwanda word meaning "invincible".
The United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was established by United Nations Security Council Resolution 872 on 5 October 1993. It was intended to assist in the implementation of the Arusha Accords,signed on 4 August 1993,which was meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). The UNAMIR has received much attention for its role in failing,due to the limitations of its rules of engagement,to prevent the Rwandan genocide and outbreak of fighting. Its mandate extended past the RPF overthrow of the government and into the Great Lakes refugee crisis. The mission is thus regarded as a major failure.
The Rwandan Patriotic Front is the ruling political party in Rwanda. Led by President Paul Kagame,the party has governed the country since its armed wing defeated government forces,winning the Rwandan Civil War in 1994.
The Rwandan genocide occurred between 7 April and 15 July 1994 during the Rwandan Civil War. During this period of around 100 days,members of the Tutsi minority ethnic group,as well as some moderate Hutu and Twa,were killed by armed Hutu militias. The most widely accepted scholarly estimates are around 500,000 to 662,000 Tutsi deaths.
The Arusha Accords,officially the Peace Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Rwandaand the Rwandan Patriotic Front,also known as the Arusha Peace Agreement or Arusha negotiations,were a set of five accords signed in Arusha,Tanzania on 4 August 1993,by the government of Rwanda and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),under mediation,to end a three-year Rwandan Civil War. Primarily organized by the Organisation of African Unity and the heads of state in the African Great Lakes region,the talks began on 12 July 1992,and ended on 4 August 1993,when the accords were finally signed.
Opération Turquoise was a French-led military operation in Rwanda in 1994 under the mandate of the United Nations. The "multilateral" force consisted of 2,500 troops,32 from Senegal and the rest French. The equipment included 100 APCs,10 helicopters,a battery of 120 mm mortars,4 Jaguar fighter bombers,8 Mirage fighters,and reconnaissance aircraft. The helicopters laid a trail of food,water and medicine enabling refugees to escape into eastern Zaire. Opération Turquoise is controversial for at least two reasons:accusations that it was an attempt to prop up the genocidal Hutu regime,and that its mandate undermined the UNAMIR. By facilitating 2 million Rwandan refugees to travel to Kivu provinces in Zaire,Turquoise setup the causes of the First Congo War.
The assassination of presidents Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira in the evening of April 6,1994 was the proximate trigger for the Rwandan genocide,which resulted in the murder of approximately 800,000 Tutsi and a smaller number of moderate Hutu. The first few days following the assassinations included a number of key events that shaped the subsequent course of the genocide. These included:the seizing of power by an interim government directed by the hard-line Akazu clique;the liquidation of opposition Hutu politicians;the implementation of plans to carry out a genocide throughout the country;and the murder of United Nations peacekeepers,contributing to the impulse of the international community to refrain from intervention.
The failure of the international community to effectively respond to the Rwandan genocide of 1994 has been the subject of significant criticism. During a period of around 100 days,between 7 April and 15 July,an estimated 500,000-1,100,000 Rwandans,mostly Tutsi and moderate Hutu,were murdered by Interahamwe militias.
The Rwanda Defence Force is the military of the Republic of Rwanda. The country's armed forces were originally known as the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR),but following the Rwandan Civil War of 1990–1994 and the Rwandan genocide of 1994 against the Tutsi,the victorious Rwandan Patriotic Front (Inkotanyi) created a new organization and named it the Rwandan Patriotic Army (RPA). Later,it was renamed to its current name.
The Rwandan Civil War was a large-scale civil war in Rwanda which was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces,representing the country's government,and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) from 1 October 1990 to 18 July 1994. The war arose from the long-running dispute between the Hutu and Tutsi groups within the Rwandan population. A 1959–1962 revolution had replaced the Tutsi monarchy with a Hutu-led republic,forcing more than 336,000 Tutsi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries. A group of these refugees in Uganda founded the RPF which,under the leadership of Fred Rwigyema and Paul Kagame,became a battle-ready army by the late 1980s.
Mbaye Diagne was a Senegalese military officer who served in Rwanda as a United Nations military observer from 1993 to 1994. During the Rwandan genocide he undertook many missions on his own initiative to save the lives of civilians.
The Kibeho massacre occurred in a camp for internally displaced persons near Kibeho,in south-west Rwanda on April 22,1995. Australian soldiers serving as part of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda estimated at least 4,000 people in the camp were killed by soldiers of the military wing of the Rwandan Patriotic Front,known as the Rwandan Patriotic Army. The Rwandan Government estimated the death toll to be 338.
Fred Gisa Rwigyema was a Rwandan politician and military officer. He was the founder of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),a political and military force formed by Rwandan Tutsi exile descendants of those forced to leave the country after the 1959 Hutu Revolution.
Marcel Gatsinzi was a Rwandan soldier and politician,who was Minister of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs from 2010 to 2013. Gatsinzi also served as Rwanda's Minister of Defence from 2002 to 2010. An ethnic Hutu from Butare,Gatsinzi was a member of the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR),which was the national army prior to the takeover of Rwanda by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
On the evening of 6 April 1994,the aircraft carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira,both Hutu,was shot down with surface-to-air missiles as their jet prepared to land in Kigali,Rwanda;both were killed. The assassination set in motion the Rwandan genocide,one of the bloodiest events of the late 20th century.
Seth Sendashonga was the Minister of the Interior in the government of national unity in Rwanda,following the military victory of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) after the 1994 genocide. One of the politically moderate Hutus in the National Unity Cabinet,he became increasingly disenchanted with the RPF and was eventually forced from office in 1995 after criticizing government policies. After surviving a 1996 assassination attempt while in exile in Kenya,he launched a new opposition movement,the Forces de Résistance pour la Démocratie (FRD). Sendashonga was killed by unidentified gunmen in May 1998. The Rwandan government is widely believed to be responsible for the assassination.
Stefan Steć was a major of the Polish Armed Forces. In 1994,he served as a peacekeeper in the UNAMIR forces in Rwanda under general Roméo Dallaire. For his dedication in saving lives during Rwandan genocide at the risk to his own,he was awarded the Cross of Merit for Bravery by Polish President Lech Wałęsa. He died at the age of 40 due to complications from posttraumatic stress disorder.
Liberation Day is a public holiday in Rwanda which is celebrated on 4 July. It commemorates the defeat of the previous Habyarimana regime and the Rwandan Armed Forces by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in the Rwandan Civil War,thus ending the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda. On 4 July 1994,the RPF secured the capital of Kigali while the end of the war only became official on 18 July with the liberation of the north-west territories. Liberation Day takes place a week after Independence Day,although it is more of a celebration rather than the national mourning period for the Rwandan Revolution on Independence Day.
In Praise of Blood:The Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front is a 2018 non-fiction book by Canadian journalist Judi Rever and published by Random House of Canada;it has also been translated into Dutch and French. The book describes alleged war crimes by the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF),Rwanda's ruling political party,during its ascent to power in the 1990s.
